四字格短文翻译(英汉、汉英各一篇)

四字格翻译短文

Passage One

It was still dark when Martin Delaney and his wife Mary got up. Martin stood in his shirt by the window, rubbing his eyes and yawning, while Mary raked out the live coals that had lain hidden in the ashes on the hearth all night. Outside, cocks were crowing and a white streak was rising from the ground, as it were, and beginning to scatter the darkness. It was a February morning, dry, cold and starry.

The couple sat down to their breakfast of tea, bread and butter, in silence. They had only been married the previous autumn and it was hateful leaving a warm bed at such an early hour. Martin, with his brown hair and eyes, his freckled face and his little fair moustache, looked too young to be married, and his wife looked hardly more than a girl, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, her black hair piled at the rear of her head with a large comb gleaming in the middle of the pile, Spanish fashion. They were both dressed in rough homespuns, and both wore the loose white shirt that the local peasants use for work in the fields. (191 words)

马丁·迪雷和他太太玛丽起床时，外面还暮色苍茫。马丁穿着睡衣站在窗前，边揉眼睛边打哈欠；此时，玛丽剥开炉灰，拣出壁炉里捂了一晚上的炭块。窗外，公鸡啼鸣，天边露出一抹鱼肚白，暮色开始四散。这是二月清晨，冷风瑟瑟，繁星点点。

马丁两口子坐下来，一言不发地吃着早饭：热茶配黄油面包。他们去年秋天才结的婚，这么早就离开暖和的被窝实在是叫人恼火。马丁看起来很年轻，金发褐眼，脸有雀斑，胡须稀而淡，不像已婚男人；玛丽看上去也只不过像个青涩少女，粉面碧眼，一袭黑发盘在脑后，中间插着一把大发梳，闪闪发光，典型西班牙发式。他们都穿着自制粗麻布裤，白色宽松式长衫，这是当地农民田间劳作时的打扮。

Passage Two

The Chinese word for politics (zhengzhi) includes a character that looks like three drops of water next to a platform or dyke. Politics and water control, the Chinese character implies, are intimately linked.

Such a way of thinking contrasts with the usual view around the world, which argues that since humans cannot live without water, it should be a basic human right, available to all, preferably for nothing. The Chinese character points to a more useful approach. In many places water is becoming scarcer. Treating it as a right makes the scarcity worse. Some of the world’s great rivers no longer reach the sea. In many cities water is rationed. Droughts and floods are becoming more extreme. These problems demand policies. Ideally, efficient water use would be encouraged by charging for it, but attempts to do so have mostly proved politically impossible. A more practicable alternative is a system of tradable water-usage rights. (153 words) 汉语“政治”一词中，“治”字由三点水加一个“台”组成，这个“台”意为平台或堤坝。“政治”和“水治”这两组汉语词意在表明二者关系千丝万缕。

与这种想法截然不同，世界范围内普遍观点认为，人类生存离不开水，这是基本人权，而且人类共有，并无差别。“水治”给出了一个行之有效的办法。对于那些水资源稀缺的地方，这种“基本人权”使缺水问题日益严重。一些大江大河不再流入海洋；城市水资源限量供应；旱涝灾害愈演愈烈。这些问题都要采取措施解决。理想办法是为有效利用水资源而鼓励用水收费，但大部分尝试性措施证明此法不可行。切实可行的替代办法是建立水使用权交易制度。